When Do You Choose To Stop Re-Gaining Weight?

Was reading a message board today. A woman posted:

And, I discovered I'm within 2 pounds of gaining back all the weight I lost a couple years ago, so I joined Weight Watchers online today. Not going to get too excited about it until after New Years, I plan to make the other half of my Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings to go with it. But I'm starting to track as of today just to get an idea of what I'm eating.

So for two years this woman has been gradually gaining back all the weight she'd lost - she doesn't say how much weight she had lost - and it is not until now, when she is within 2 pounds of that original weight loss, that she is going to go onto a diet again to try to lose the weight again?

Why didn't she go back on her diet after she'd regained five pounds, or even ten? (I'm going to go out on a limb and assume she'd lost 50 pounds or so.)

Well, for that matter, why doesn't everybody? See, that's the whole thing. 90% of people who lose weight gain it all back within 5 years...not only that, they even gain more back.

Why is it that they can't step on a scale, see that they've regained 5 pounds of all the weight they've lost, and stop right there?

Well, it's psychological. When someone has been on a diet for a long time - a "diet" being something temporary that they only have to do until they achieve a goal, and then they can stop and go back to their old habits - tension builds up and builds up. Then, once they've achieved their goal, the tension relaxes, and it's like a muscle tensed up for too long, it begins to shiver uncontrollably. People need a release...and that release is to start eating ....and keep on eating and eating and eating.

That's why the key is not to "diet" temporarily - the key is to have a total lifestyle change, so there is nothing to go "off" of.

And once you've lost however many pounds you desire to lose, you know exactly how much food you can add to your portions on a daily basis - one extra portion - to maintain your new weight.

And again - don't deprive yourself of anything. Eat white bread, if you like it, eat white rice if you like it. A calorie is a calorie.

The only thing that you really need to cut out, if at all possible, is soft drinks like Pepsi or Coke. 150 calories per can, and if you drink 5 a day, as I used to do... Drop it down- as gradually as you have to - until you're only drinking one a day...if that.